Aristotle

Aristotle believed that everything is in
THIS world, as opposed to Plato who
believed there are two worlds.

We see a transition from Socrates and
Plato to Aristotle.Aristotle is focusing
more on the human. He is realistic.

From this transition from Plato to Aristotle, we can also see the transitions in
art when we look at the art of the late classical age. In the late classical age,
we see a transition from the Diskobolos(perhaps an imitation of the World of
Being?) to the Doryphoros, which is realistic and more humanlike. The
Doryphoros is not complete perfection, it is flawed in proportions. The
diskobolos is perfect.

In the Doryphoros, we see that it is perfectly conforms to
phi (the golden ratio). We see the use of math and logic
when creating the Doryphoros. The pose of the statue is of
a man thinking, looking outward. We see this as a mean of
reason.

Since the Doryphoros is not perfect, it is flawed we are
presented with some of Aristotle's ideas on art and literature. In
"Poetics", Aristotle states that in order for art or literature to be
helpful for a society(to balance one's emotions) it is necessary
to create art and literature that the common people can relate
to. They must be the authentic and accurate imitation of the
human condition, so we can feel pity and fear for the tragic
hero of the play. The character must be an intermediate kind of
personage so we can relate to them and feel catharsis. Once
we achieve catharsis, the cleansing of emotions, we are more
balanced and so is the society. We see in the Doryphoros the
relation between that statue and humans. All of us are flawed
like him and we all use reason to think. None of us are human, it
is only with such statues that we can properly achieve
catharsis which is essential for a society., New node

Plato and Aristotle also emphasized the importance of reason in an individual. Aristotle believed reason was a
virtue but it was not something one could be born with. Reason is a habit that must be formed at an early age.
We see this virtue evident in Leonidas, the leader of the Persian War. He used reason to buy more time for Athens
and he was able to use a double agent to his advantage. Reason was a virtue when Plato was trying to destroy
democracy and create a Republic. He believed that a society should only be governed by philosophers, the
reasonable and wise people of a society.Power should not be given to uneducated and unreasonable people. We
also see reason as being virtuous before that in the Archaic Age, where people rose to fight for their power by
using reason.

Aristotle also believed that the main purpose of life is to be
happy-not a FEELING but rather a state of being. It is constant and
can be developed through harmony. In order to be harmonious, one
must have a balance of reason and passion, the golden mean. They
must make it a habit when they are born to have that habit.
Everyone is capable of being reasonable, virtuous, harmonious, and
happy.

He was a biologist and a scientist so
he was realistic as to the way life
worked.

Aristotle believed in a higher being. A
higher being that is eternal and
unchanging, which is why the higher being
doesn't move.